Property for People, Not for Profit: Alternatives to the Global Tyranny of Capital

257 Pages·2004·1.29 MB·English

by  Ulrich Duchrow

Critical praise for this book
‘This learned book demonstrates that the globalization of the un-
regulated market, driven by the accumulation of property, leads
to the impoverishment of ever wider sectors of humanity and the
devastation of the natural environment…. This can be stopped
only by recognizing the conditional character of property, de-
mocratizing the ownership of productive goods, and creating
economic development that serves human well-being and protects
the earth.’ Professor Gregory Baum, McGill-Queens University
‘This book is an interesting and significant contribution to the
growing discussion on the adverse effects of the implementation of
unbridled global market activities. It also has good ideas on what
can be done to rectify the situation. I hope many people will read it
and draw lessons from it.’ Martin Khor, Director, Third World Network
‘Faith-based groups are enormously important in the global jus-
tice movement and they are on the move, as this penetrating and
crucial text demonstrates. It is incumbent on us all to incorporate
this dimension in our own analyses so that we can move forward in
unity, secularists and faith-oriented together, in the common quest
for justice. This book is a great step forward on that road.’ Susan
George, author and campaigner
‘Here is a strong message, one that makes connections in politics,
economics, philosophy and scripture. It is an encouragement for
those who have been told that “there is no alternative”, and urges
upon us the claims of economic and political discipleship. It will
bring excitement, challenge and controversy to any group.’ The Rt
Revd Dr Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester and Bishop to HM Prisons
‘I highly recommend Property for People, Not for Profit. Capitalism
today is too often thought of as “natural” or “God-given” when a
careful examination of the history of its development shows that
there are other ways to think about how our economy and society
should be organized. The most valuable contribution of this book,
however, is to show how another world is possible.’ Dennis Howlett,
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative
About this book
The issue of private property – how it is conceived and the
bundles of rights it confers – remains almost undiscussed in the
current wave of criticism of globalization and free market eco-
nomics, and also in the alternatives that the global social justice
movement is putting forward. Yet, as these authors argue, prop-
erty lies at the heart of an economic system geared to relatively
unfettered profit maximization and that has no regard for either
the lives of human beings or the integrity of Nature. The reason for
this, they suggest, is because under capitalism property is not related
to its use-value for people, but to its exchange-value for the un-
limited accumulation of money assets by those who have.
In this powerful exploration of the modern Western notion of
private property, the authors – one an economist and the other a
theologian – have combined forces to make clear the historically
specific and self- consciously explicit manner in which it emerged.
While constantly making clear the relevance of their discussion to
present-day issues, they trace this history from earliest historical
times and show how, in the hands of Thomas Hobbes and John
Locke in particular, the notion of private property took on its
absolutist nature and most extreme form – a form which neoliberal
economics is now imposing on humanity worldwide by means of
the coercive pressures of globalization.
Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert argue that the only
hope of overcoming the destruction of people’s ways of living and
of Nature – and the vicious circle of imperial terror and funda-
mentalist resistance to it that has now emerged – is to reshape our
notions of private property in accordance with people’s concrete
lives and the common good. What human beings have created,
human beings can change. In this highly original and persuasive
account, the authors look at practical ways in which we can re-
define our notions and the legal forms of different kinds of prop-
erty – personal property; property in the fundamental elements of
land and water; and economic property in the means of produc-
tion. Finally, they look at the possibilities of social and ecumenical
movements to campaign for the implementation of alternatives.
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this pioneering
book in both philosophical and political terms.
Ulrich Duchrow & Franz J. Hinkelammert
Property for People, Not for Profit
alternatives to the global tyranny
of capital
translated by Elaine Griffiths with Trish Davie,
Michael Marten and Páraic Réamonn
Zed Books
london · new york
in association with
Catholic Institute for International
Relations
london
The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) is an
international development agency working through skill-share and
advocacy for an end to injustice and the eradication of poverty. We
work with people of all faiths and none.
Property for People, Not for Profit: alternatives to the global dictatorship
of capital was first published jointly in 2004 by Zed Books Ltd,
7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa and WCC Publications, World
Council of Churches, PO Box 2100, 150 route de Ferney, 1211
Geneva 2, Switzerland.
Published in association with The Catholic Institute for International
Relations (CIIR), Unit 3, Canonbury Yard, 190a New North Road,
London n1 7bj, UK.
www.zedbooks.co.uk
www.wcc-coe.org
www.ciir.org
Copyright © Ulrich Duchrow and Franz J. Hinkelammert, 2004
The rights of Ulrich Duchrow and Franz J. Hinkelammert to be
identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Cover designed by Andrew Corbett
Set in Bembo and Futura Bold by Ewan Smith, London
Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Ltd
Distributed in the usa exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division
of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 84277 478 6 cased (Zed Books)
isbn 978 1 84277 479 3 limp (Zed Books)
isbn 978 2 8254 1400 2 limp (WCC Publications)
Contents
Preface, by Konrad Raiser |vii
Foreword |x
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Absolute property creates poverty, debts and slavery:
1
the origin of the property economy in antiquity and
biblical alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Ancient Greece |7 Rome |11 Ancient Israel, the Jesus
movement and the early Church as counter-cultural
experiments |13
Homo homini lupus: the emergence of the capitalist
2
possessive market society in the modern age . . . . . . . 29
Property and its consequences |31 The first comprehensive
theory of the possessive market society: Thomas Hobbes |34
The case of John Locke: the inversion of human rights in
3
the name of bourgeois property . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The world of John Locke |44 Locke’s central argument:
eliminate those who encroach on property |47 The state
of war |50 The legitimization of forced labour by slavery |56
The legitimate expropriation of the indigenous peoples of
North America |59 Locke’s method of deriving human
rights from property |65 Regaining human rights in the
context of postmodernism |70
The total market: how globalized capitalism is eliminating
4
the commitment to sustain life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The struggle to make property-owners accountable to
society and the example of the German constitution |77
The destruction of nature and of social cohesion by private
property in the context of neo-liberal globalization |90
The fall of the Twin Towers: the enforcement of the total
5
market through the absolute empire . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Fighting for all the power |114 The coordinates of good and
evil collapse |118 The global civil war |123 From hopelessness
to despair |127 Is there a way out? |137
It is life-enhancing production which must grow, not
6
capitalist property: Latin American approaches to a renewed
dependency theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Development policy as a policy of growth |143 The new
polarization of the world |145 Problems relating to a general-
ized development policy |150
Another world is possible: rebuilding the system of
7
ownership from below from the perspective of life and
the common good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
What is meant by life and the common good? |156 How can
the ownership system be rebuilt from below? |162
God or Mammon? A confessional issue for the Churches
8
in the context of social movements . . . . . . . . . . . 204
The social movements |204 The ecumenical context |205
Becoming a confessing Church? |208 The political demands
of the Church with respect to a new property system |218
Appendices
No to patenting of Life! |225
The Cochabamba Declaration |228
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Preface, by Konrad Raiser
Many books have been published in recent years offering a critical
analysis of global capitalism. They have considered the historical and
political conditions that have facilitated the emergence of economic
globalization. Particular attention has been focused on the impact of
economic globalization in the form of global capitalism on the dis-
advantaged sectors of the population, especially in the countries of
the global South. Increasingly the discussion has moved from critical
analysis to the exploration of alternatives. The World Social Forum has
become the framework that enables the diverse approaches in search-
ing for alternatives to join forces. Its slogan, ‘Another world is possible’,
marks the transition from an anti-globalization movement to an ‘alter-
globalization’ stance.
This book by Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Josef Hinkelammert is
intended to strengthen this constructive perspective. However, the
authors develop their proposals for alternatives against the background
of a penetrating historical and philosophical analysis of the roots of
global capitalism. They are convinced that the dynamic of global
capitalism has arisen from a fundamental change in the understanding
of property. Today the purpose of property is no longer determined by
its use for the sustenance of human life in community but is oriented
towards the production of monetary gain. Property that can produce
profit has become capital. According to the authors, the philosophical
and conceptual basis for this transformation of the traditional function
of property in human societies was provided by John Locke after the
‘Glorious Revolution’ in England (1688) and was sanctioned through
the American constitution. Thus, the door was opened for the un-
limited accumulation of property which is the main characteristic of
capitalism.
The central three chapters of the book provide a sharp critical
perspective on the establishment of the ‘total market’ as a conse-
quence of the globalization of capitalism. The evidence is taken partly
from developments in legislation and economic policy in Germany,
partly from experience in Latin America. The terrorist attacks on the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the
subsequent declaration of the ‘war on terrorism’, are interpreted as a
Preface | viii
manifestation of the (self-)destructive character of global capitalism
which releases a vicious circle of violence.
The authors share a long-standing involvement in social move-
ments both in Latin America and in the European context, especially
in Germany, and are inspired by the tradition of ‘prophetic criticism’
in the worldwide ecumenical movement. Against this background
they seek to reinstate the economic and ethical validity of the under-
standing of property which has its roots both in Greek antiquity
(Aristotle) and in the biblical tradition, and which was maintained as
ethically normative until the late Middle Ages. Here the legitimacy
of the use of property is to be judged by the criterion of whether it
ultimately serves the common good of the community. The unlimited
accumulation of property is considered a danger for the sustainability
of human community.
A life-centred ethic which accepts the common good as the guid-
ing value and seeks to promote the sustainability of life for human
community in harmony with the natural life cycles thus becomes
the yardstick for considering alternatives to the dominant system of a
market society based on the treatment of property as capital. Property
for People, Not for Profit captures well the central thrust of this inves-
tigation. Concrete life is lived in local communities. This is also the
context where the interdependence between human communities
and the natural life cycles is most obvious. The local-regional level,
therefore, becomes the focus for developing alternatives to the spirit,
logic and praxis of global capitalism. Of course, the search for alterna-
tives that are meant to promote an effective change cannot be limited
to the local level. All forms of property, from personal property to the
ownership of essential factors of economic life such as land, labour,
energy, water and air, but also knowledge and above all money, are
subjected to this critical scrutiny with a view to rebuilding an order
of property from below from the perspective of life and the common
good.
The book concludes with a brief survey of the critical social
movements and initiatives that have emerged in the context of the
ecumenical movement. Particular emphasis is placed on the processus
confessionis against worldwide economic injustice and the destruc-
tion of nature initiated by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
in 1997. This has become the basis of intensive cooperation between
several ecumenical organizations and their member Churches in the
Preface | ix
different regions. Ulrich Duchrow here again addresses the question
he discussed in earlier publications, i.e. whether the Churches should
not consider the global structures of economic injustice a case that
calls for a prophetic confession of faith like the total claims of national
socialism or the system of apartheid.
The two authors have made a very valuable contribution to the
critical discussion about global capitalism. Their focus on the crucial
role of a changed understanding of property helps to deepen the
critical discourse and offers essential criteria for ethical judgement.
And even those who would consider complete reconstruction of the
social and economic use of property as unrealistic and utopian will
find in this book many realistic proposals that could prepare the way
for an alternative social and economic order. But above all, the book
is a powerful and convincing refutation of the thesis that there is no
alternative to the system of global capitalism. And its message is one of
hope and encouragement – for the sake of life.